Over the past decade there has been an exponential increase in money transfer transactions. In addition to financial institutions, individuals can now transfer money using both the traditional route, e.g., wire transfer through a financial institution, and using their payment cards, e.g., Visa Money Transfer.
With the advent of globalization, people are increasingly travelling to different regions and countries for employment. In addition, the increased use of the Internet has enabled people to communicate with each other regardless of their location. A combined effect of globalization and improved means of communication has resulted in an increase in number of money transfer operations among financial institutions, business entities, and individuals. Services such as, Visa Money Transfer have made it easy for individuals to transfer money from their bank accounts and/or payment card accounts to other entities.
Cross-border money transfer transactions are on the rise. A cross-border money transfer is a transaction where money is sent by an entity from country A to an entity in country B. Often it is difficult to ascertain the motive behind the money transfer. With rise of global terrorism, many governments now mandate that such cross-border transactions be monitored for potential money laundering activities other unlawful activities.
Currently, sending financial institutions perform some screening for such transactions prior to the transfer. However, often the receiving financial institution has no way to determine if the incoming transaction is legitimate. This problem is especially acute in countries where the banking infrastructure is poor and the screening methods are not reliable or can be easily circumvented. Recently, many governments throughout the world have mandated that financial institutions monitor funds transfer activities for potential unlawful activities such as money laundering.
What is needed is a robust and tamper-proof screening service for money transfer transactions that will provide reliable information to both the sending and the receiving financial institutions in order to judge the legitimacy of a particular money transfer transaction.